74THE REWARDS OF FASTINGHe did not call us to this simply because it is a good and godly way to liveut because in serving others we come face to face with the Servant of all.Prayingray to your Father who is in the secret place; and your Father who sees in secret will reward you openly�(Matt. 6:6). Jesus went on to call us to a life of prayerhe third expression of the fasted lifestyle. Prayer also is difficult in that our flesh so fights against the seeming lack of productivity. To pray to an invisible God is a taxing endeavor: the impact is usually delayed and is most often not discernible, and the reward promised by God is not always what we would have guessed. Prayer and reading the Word of God are forms of voluntary weakness that fast our time and emotions (Matt. 6:5-13). Instead of using all of our time for the advancement of our status or success, we use some of it to seek the face of an invisible God. Instead of being entertained by the television or surfing the Internet, we intercede for those He loves. When we give our time to God, we miss other opportunities to network; to build up our ministries, businesses, or personal status; or to recreate and be entertained. As I mentioned previously, in my early years I complained, ord, I could do a lot more for You if I did not have to spend time in prayer.�It seemed like a waste. This type of fasting, though, is actually the opposite of asting�time. True, we have not used those hours to socialize, fellowship, or advance our position, but because of that, we are forced to entrust ourselves to the Lord for favor and promotion, and we quickly find that we will never be able to out-give God, even in issues of time and energy. We are also fasting our emotional energy during prayer as we pour ourselves out and intercede for God blessing on others. As we do this, we trust God to touch those we love. That would be reward enough. However, God also returns that very time and emotional energy to us in order to bless us personally. He often
